The $82.5 million man delivered his worst performance of the season - and that's saying something ... Burnett allowed seven runs on five hits and three walks in only 1.2 innings, the second-shortest start of the righthander's career. ...
After handing the ball to the manager, the pitcher took three steps off the mound, turned over his left shoulder and shouted three words - two of them unprintable in this space - expressing what appeared to be displeasure with his manager for pulling him. ...
Girardi turned his head and looked as if he said something back to Burnett. That wasn't the story Girardi told after the game, however, as he went on a rant when asked about the chain of events. ... Girardi's rant made less sense after Burnett acknowledged that the two spoke about his outburst a few innings later in the clubhouse. ...
This is not the first time that Burnett has appeared to show up his manager after being pulled from a game. ...
Considering Girardi's harmless portrayal of the situation, his reaction to the question about the clubhouse visit was quite dramatic. ... One Yankee said the constant drama surrounding Burnett was "starting to tick guys off" inside the clubhouse.
Joe Girardi sternly insists he has A.J. Burnett's back and that he is tired of people trying to divide the manager and struggling pitcher ... OK, Girardi has Burnett's back, but where has the arm gone? ...
[W]ith less than six weeks remaining in the season, Burnett is indefensible. ... Burnett is 1-4 with a 7.12 ERA in his past nine starts, allowing 61 hits and 25 walks in 49.1 innings.
"I will figure it out," Burnett said.
... there are Yankee fans who want to make sure Burnett doesn't pitch for the Red Sox?!?
Mike Vaccaro, Post:
See, the thing that aggravates you about A.J. Burnett isn't just that he's a relentlessly underachieving mess so much of the time. It isn't just that he's stubborn, and bullheaded, and oblivious to coaching and counsel, something he's proven time and again all across his maddeningly mediocre career. ...Benjamin Kabak, River Ave. Blues:
No matter what Burnett's after-the-fact intentions may have been, there is no excuse for him walking off the mound that way. Say he's telling the truth: It's better to gripe about the umpire when you've been nine levels of lousy all night? ...
General manager Brian Cashman may be on to something. The only way you can bear to watch Burnett pitch anymore is by taking a couple of hits from the objective pipe. Plus a couple of swigs from an objective bottle of Stoli.
Even on his best days, I find his pitching process torturous. ... [H]is inability to command even his fastball makes for games that slog on. When I watch him on TV, I try to keep myself busy lest I start to find things to throw through the television.Hank Waddles, Bronx Banter:
Burnett was bad. Unspeakably bad. He couldn't locate either his fastball or his curveball all night long — and by "all night long" I mean an inning and two thirds. ...SG, Replacement Level Yankees Weblog:
There have been 15 regular season perfect games in MLB history. There had been four games where a starting pitcher did not pitch 2 complete innings, but did throw two wild pitches, did walk at least three batters, and allowed seven or more runs.
Now there have been five such games.
Congrats A.J.!
As bad as Lackey is, hopefully he'll never be in AJ's league.
ReplyDeletePerhaps MFY fans following Dice-K get their bit of a schadenfreude hit....
ReplyDelete:(
There have been more than 15 regular season perfect games. I hate how people always think "history" only counts the time B-R has box scores for. That's a case where the blogger should have just Googled instead of doing the B-R search thing. First people were stuck on 1954 or whatever, now it's 1919. It looks like I can't comment over there without registering. There are 35 comments and nobody has told the guy yet.
ReplyDeleteI looked high and low but I can't find the "three words" that AJ spoke when he was coming off the mound. (I was paying more attention to Timmeh on the other screen in the bar I was in.)
ReplyDeleteAny ideas?
"I hate how people always think "history" only counts the time B-R has box scores for. That's a case where the blogger should have just Googled instead of doing the B-R search thing."
ReplyDeletePerhaps he knows B-Ref as a reliable source and, not knowing its limitations, assumes it's a better source than Wikipedia or Google. Or perhaps he simply made a mistake.
"the "three words" that AJ spoke when he was coming off the mound"
ReplyDeleteI hate baseball?
I can't pitch?
See you later!
ReplyDeleteI'm getting paid.
Uglier than Unit!
***
I think the quote is in most of the articles I linked to: "That's fucking bullshit!"
No, it was definitely 'horseshit'. I can't find any video now, but it was very clear on the YES broadcast.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Russell Martin, AJ was talking about the ball four call -- Martin and Burnett both thought they had him. (The replay and pitch f/x say it's borderline.)
I was thinking "fuck this shit!"
ReplyDelete"Perhaps he knows B-Ref as a reliable source and, not knowing its limitations, assumes it's a better source than Wikipedia or Google. Or perhaps he simply made a mistake."
ReplyDeleteI'm not saying, "when looking up baseball stats, go to Wikipedia over B-R." I'm saying that this guy is used to going to B-R and getting the reports, which is fine, but in a case like this, he skipped over the obvious to go to a detailed report, only to come up with an incomplete conclusion. Perfect games are well documented. Lists of them exist everywhere. Even the guy/girl in charge of B-R would tell you, if you want a list of all perfect games, you wouldn't go to a source that starts at 1919. It's not like he needed to know some obscure thing like times a guy got 2 or more doubles in a game while getting 0 RBI or something. For that, yes, of course, go to B-R, use their reports, and note in your conclusion that the stats are "since 1919."
If it was a mistake, it could only be that he forgot to mention "since 1919." It's not like he just wrote the wrong number, because he links right to the B-R report he used to get the number. This isn't just some guy, it's one of the top bloggers (or at least I assume he has to be since I've been hearing the name for years and it's a Yankee blog that even Red Sox blogs link). I mean does the guy really think that records are incomplete from pre-1919 to the point that there are perfect games in there that nobody knows about?
For the record, there were two other perfect games between 1901 and 1918, one by Cy Young. And there were a few more from before the "modern era." (I'm talking about ones that are "official" PGs. Some were shortened games, etc., and those don't count.)
If it was a mistake, it could only be that he forgot to mention "since 1919."
ReplyDeleteI would assume this is the case, as that's a good blog and not run by idiots. Well, except for being Yankee fans. (There's a blurb for ya: "Not run by idiots." You're welcome, SG!)
Knowing SG's posts -- he runs the season sims I often link to -- the post is clearly saying (sarcastically), look at how amazingly rare Burnett's performance was. It is so rare that there have been many more perfect game thrown in the same time period. (Rare is not always good, though.)
The "since 1919" is annoying because how many times can you type that if you are using BRef? Some people use "Play Index Era", which is not bad. But not all fans know what the hell that is. And if you say "since at least 1919", casual fans may wonder "why 1919?" It's a pain in the ass sometimes.
If it was a mistake, it could only be that he forgot to mention "since 1919."
ReplyDeleteThat's what I assumed as well. Not that he typed the wrong number or thinks history only exists if it's on the Baseball Reference website.